MARK MICKE STAYS ON TOP IN QUALIFYING
After struggling unexpectedly on Thursday, Mark Micke returned to his dominating ways on Friday, jumping to the top of the qualifying sheet with a 3.575-second pass at 223.65 mph. The pass extended Micke’ s No. 1 qualifying streak to an incredible 13 events in a row in his twin-turbocharged M & M Transmission’ 69 Camaro.
“ We got behind during testing, and Thursday we just couldn’ t put it together,” said Micke, who also collected the $ 10,000 low qualifier bonus.“ We had changed the car up a lot at U. S. Street because there’ s radial prep, and we found out we couldn’ t run it like that at this race. We put our heads together, looked over the data, and were pretty confident this morning.
“ We ran a. 61 in the morning, and that got our confidence back,” Micke continued.“ Things just fell our way in the next round – we watched the weather falling and the track getting cooler, and I said,‘ Boys, I think this is our run.’ To put together 13 No. 1s in a row against the baddest
Pro Mod racers in the world, I’ m just really proud of our guys. Thick and thin, hot or cold, whatever the prep, we’ ve been able to pull it out with the car. To be standing on top, that’ s pretty badass.”
As the No. 1 qualifier, Micke was the first driver to pull a poker chip out of the bag in Friday night’ s chip draw. He pulled the No. 2 chip along with No Prep Kings star and 2024 Snowbird Outlaw Nationals winner Kye Kelley, setting up what was the marquee matchup
of round one between two drivers with points championship aspirations.
“ Those guys ain’ t no joke,” Micke said.“ They’ ve got Jeff [ Pierce ] and Billy [ Stocklin ], so they’ re going to run fast – and Kye’ s a machine on the tree, and one of our oldest NPK customers. But we talked, and if we can knock Kye out, that jumps us ahead, and then we gotta pray we get( points leader) Ken Quartuccio in the next round. That’ s the only shot we got. It’ ll be a stretch, but our best shot is to get him early.”
Micke left on Kelley, who turned heads with his quick reaction times en route to the Snowbirds victory in December. Micke’ s. 016 reaction time put him ahead of Kelley and his. 029 out of the gate. Being behind Micke by the 330-foot mark usually doesn’ t end well for his opponents, and this was the case for Kelley. The baby blue Camaro rocketed to a 3.61 at 218.55 to hold off Kelley and his 3.617 at 206.67.
Micke’ s WSOPM ended in the second round, where he left first again next to another NPK driver, Scott Taylor, but got out of shape and had to lift, while Taylor cruised to a 3.719. With a semifinal finish at the Snowbirds and a pair of second-round exits to finish out the Winter Series, Micke finished fifth in the final points standings.— CRAIG COOK DI DI DI
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